WORDS OF ADMONITION

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 19, 1869

WORDS OF ADMONITION.

Hosea vii, 2; “And they consider not in their hearts that I REMEMBER ALL THEIR WICKEDNESS; now their own doings have beset them about; THEY ARE BEFORE MY FACE.”

How this declaration should alarm us when we do wrong! What a restraining influence should these words have upon our minds to keep us from evil. All our evil deeds are plain to God’s view, as being directly before his face. And he declares that he will remember all our wickedness. How soon our wrong deeds pass from our minds! But God remembers them all.

Eccl. xii, 14: “For God shall bring every work into Judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

Then the Scriptures mean something when they say God remembers all the wickedness of men. He designs to call them to account for it in the day of Judgment. What an alarming statement is this! Even all the secret things will be inquired into, and opened before all. We cannot hide sin by committing it in secret. It is all naked and open to the Judge of men.

Rev. xx, 12: “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

So it appears that God not only sees our conduct and remembers it all, not even our secret sins being hidden from him, but that he even causes it all to be written in the books of his remembrance. It further appears that the decision of that final day shall be according to what our works have been. What words can express the difference that shall be made between the righteous and the wicked! Those whose names are in the BOOK OF LIFE, shall live forever with the Lord. And those whose names are not found in that record of immortal fame—and every name therein is what Solomon commends as a name of priceless value—every one whose name, I say, is not found in the book of life shall have his part in the devouring fire, which is the second death. Isa. xxxiii, 11, 12, 14; Rev. xx, 14, 15; xxi, 8. The following words which may have some application even to judgments in this life

present the final overthrow of the wicked in language that should cause fear and trembling.

Eze. xvii, 14: “Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it.”

Of what use is it that we harden our hearts? We can make them hard enough to render ourselves incapable of fearing the judgments of God; but, when the judgments shall be inflicted, can our hearts then endure, can our hands then be strong? How much better is a tender heart, that feels the first approach of sin and flies from it. How circumspect should all our conduct be in the light of such testimonies as the above.

1 Sam. ii, 3: “The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.”

If God weighs our actions, would it not be well for us to weigh them? If we must come to the Judgment, would it not be well to bear it in mind in every thing we do? If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall such as ourselves appear?